


the magic remains

by orphan_account



Series: gangsey holidays [4]
Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Christmas, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Multi, grown-up Gangsey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-24
Updated: 2015-12-24
Packaged: 2018-05-09 02:00:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5521319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>some ten years after the curses and magic and unfortunate events, the Gangsey has a Christmas reunion on Christmas Eve, complete with cookies, tacky Christmas sweaters, <i>The Polar Express</i>, and children.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the magic remains

The Barns 2.0 was a winter wonderland, complete with blankets of glistening snow, strings of white lights, and the warm sense of holiday cheer.

It wasn’t quite the Barns that Ronan grew up in. Once Adam was out of Henrietta, he insisted on keeping it that way. The small town was filled with too many bad memories and the possibility of seeing the people he couldn’t stand, his father and those Aglionby bastards included. Adam spent his teenage years working hard to escape, and he refused to go back.

Ronan had been disappointed, for he wanted to stay at the Barns. Even it held some bad memories of his father and desperate times, it was home. But if it made Adam happy, he would have moved across the country. Hell, he would have moved the entire Earth for him. 

So, the two managed to find an old house in a remote area, only twenty minutes away from the local city. With a little bit of love and paint, they turned it into their new home.

Just like the real Barns, it was a place of magic at Christmas.

Gansey and Blue stepped into the white house on Christmas Eve, their shivering bodies basking in the heat of the foyer. As Gansey helped Blue remove her jacket, they heard a three voices singing a popular Christmas carol: two weak and off-pitch and one powerful and moving. Someone stumbled around the lyrics, and the singing stopped, followed by chorus of laughter from the kitchen.

Blue’s swollen feet ached as she walked across the room. As soon as she appeared in the doorway, she saw the sources of those voices. Adam, Ronan, and Noah were gathered around the island, decorating a batch of gingerbread men. Each of them had on a different Christmas sweater, though they were all tacky and gaudy and colorful.

“Wow, you’ve grown,” Adam said, looking at Blue’s round stomach. She grinned, placing a hand on it as if to feel the life within.  


“Look’s like Dick the Fourth is ready to make his debut,” Ronan smirked. Blue was nearing the end of her third trimester, only one week until her due date, and she looked (and felt) like she was about to pop.   


“It’s going to be a girl,” Blue declared as Gansey stepped up behind her. He wrapped his arms around her, his hands resting just above her stomach.  


“Mistletoe!” Noah interrupted, motioning for the couple to look up. They glanced up and, surely enough, a sprig of mistletoe hung above them. Blue turned her head just slightly and caught Gansey’s lips for a short kiss.   


“It’s going to be a girl, and she’ll be here by tomorrow,” Blue told them.   


Ronan crossed his arms over his chest. “How do you know? You didn’t ask for the sex reveal during your ultrasounds. Plus, no one can actually foresee when they give birth.”

“It’s simple,” she said, crossing the room to pick up a cookie. She took a bite of the arm. “My family only gives birth to girls, and my family also saw that tomorrow is the big day in which little Maya comes into this world screaming and crying. And good riddance, because my bladder can’t take anymore pushing and kicking.”  


Just a few days ago, while visiting her relatives at 300 Fox Way, Jimi placed a hand on Blue’s stomach and told her that it would be a Christmas baby. It was three days earlier than Blue had estimated, but she was still happy.

“Are you nervous?” Noah asked, appearing in front of her.  


While the rest of them had grown and aged, Noah was still a pale ghost of a teenage boy. It was odd, sometimes, for Blue or Adam or Ronan or Gansey to look at one another and see the older and matured faces only to turn to Noah and see the same face they’d seen for some ten years. But they were just glad to still have him around. It was better to have a young-looking Noah than to live without Noah at all.

“Of course I am,” Blue said, taking a bite out of the other arm. She was a lot of things- nervous, excited, happy, terrified, sad, excited, nervous. “She’s my first child. The entire situation holds so many possibilities of ways to go wrong, but I am excited to meet her.”

Gansey smiled and stroked her hand. “She’ll be our little Christmas miracle.”

“Speaking of Christmas miracles,” Blue began, “where’s Rosie?”  


Just one year before, Ronan and Adam had adopted a four-year-old girl named Rose. It hadn’t been planned. Rose wandered into Ronan’s pet shelter during a day out with the matron of the children’s home she lived in. It only took one look at the blonde-headed girl for Ronan’s heart to melt. For two months, all he could think about was her blue eyes widening as she stared at one of the dogs in the shelter. By Christmas, they had a new room fit for a princess, an adoption certificate, and a daughter.

“She’s probably in her room watching _Rudolph_ ,” Adam said. “I’ll go get her.”  


Blue sighed and settled into a chair at the kitchen table. She tried to cross her leg and bring her foot up, but her stomach got in the way. As she frowned, Gansey sat next to her, lifted her leg so her foot rested in his lap, and began to massage it. She smiled in contentment, and Ronan made a gagging gesture. “Someone’s got you wrapped around her finger, Dick. You’ve gone soft.”

A stampede of footsteps approached them, and a high-pitched giggle echoed in the hallway. Rose ran into the kitchen, Adam trailing behind her. She would’ve kept running, too, but someone stood in her way and picked her up. 

“Hey, runt. You’re under the mistletoe,” Ronan said, displaying a wicked grin. The grin was a different sort of wicked from those he gave so long ago. It lacked menace or danger. Instead, it was playful and completely adorable. 

Adam stopped beside him, a grin etching onto his own features. “I guess that means we’ll have to kiss you.”

Rose giggled, her blonde curls bouncing as she squirmed in their arms to avoid their lips. The couple peppered her cheeks with tiny kisses, a sight that was grossly cute.

“You’re one to talk, Lynch,” Gansey said, the grin spreading to his face.   


“You’ll be the same way with your daughter,” Ronan said, placing Rose on her feet.  


“Auntie Jane!! Uncle Gansey!!” Rose squealed, running toward them. Blue barely had time to remove her foot from Gansey’s lap before the child hurled herself at her. “How is the baby? Is it sleeping?”

Blue laughed softly and brushed a strand of hair from her eyes. “No, she’s very much awake right now. Do you want to feel her kick?” 

Rose nodded her head furiously, her eyes wide with wonder. Blue took her small hand and placed it on her pregnant belly. The baby shifted inside of her, its foot pressing into her stomach.

“Woah,” Rose said. “That felt funny.”  


Gansey lifted the child and pulled her into his lap. “Soon, you’ll actually get to hold her.”

“When?”  


“Tomorrow,” Blue said. Perhaps she should’ve added a ‘maybe’, but she was sure. If her aunt (or anyone in her family, for that matter) predicted it, it was going to happen. Even if she was scared, Blue was ready. While it was wonderful to have a little person growing inside, pregnancy was also a lot of sleepless nights, backaches, bathroom breaks, and reactions to foods once loved.   


“Christmases just keep getting better!!” Rose exclaimed, showing a toothy grin. “Can we go open presents now, Daddy?”

“Sure, kiddo,” Ronan said, picking up the tray of cookie.

All the adults watched as the little girl climbed from Gansey’s lap and went running out of the kitchen. When they didn’t move, she ran back and shouted at them, “Come on, you slow pokes!! It’s time for presents!!”  


The five of them shuffled into the living room and gathered around the tree. As presents were being passed out, Adam began a fire. 

It didn’t take long to tear through all the gifts. Bright sweaters and baby clothes and crafting supplies were exchanged for toys and books and dark clothes. Within thirty minutes, the pile of presents under the tree had diminished somewhat and a pile of wrapping paper lay in the trash.

To uphold tradition, they piled onto the couches and watched _The Polar Express._ The adults nursed their mugs while Rose sang at the top of her lungs and danced around during the hot chocolate scene.

Blue intertwined her fingers with Gansey’s and smiled to herself as she glanced around the room. Adam and Ronan were cuddling on the couch adjacent to her, the light reflecting off their wedding bands as they watched their daughter. Noah was dancing along with Rose, and he looked more corporeal than she ever remembered. Even Chainsaw, nestled by the fire, looked cozy. 

After the movie, Rose was sent to bed to “go to sleep so Santa could visit.” Ronan’s voice, telling the tale of _The Night Before Christmas,_ traveled down the hallway and into the living room. Blue saw the look of pure adoration on Adam’s face as he listened to his husband read the classic bedtime story.

The holidays were a stressful time. It included rushing to see all sides of the families, making sure all presents were wrapped, preparing food, and on top of it all, being pregnant to make everything ten times more difficult and more painful.

But sitting here, seeing all the smiling faces lit by the glow of the fire and tree lights, Blue relaxed. She took a moment to enjoy just how far they had all made it. Curses and magic and unfortunate events had been no match for them. Now, with college degrees, stable jobs, growing families, their remaining friendships, and places to call home, they were so rich in more than just money. 

The holidays were a time of stress, but they were also a time of complete bliss. 

It left Blue, and everyone else, with a feeling of warmth that filled her entire body. Everything seemed perfect.

Then, the contractions began.

***

After fourteen hours, a lot of shouting, and a bruised hand, Adam, Ronan, Gansey, Noah, and Rose all circled around the hospital bed to get a look at the tiny baby swaddled in pink. Blue smiled down at the child in her arms, watching as her daughter, face still red from her recent birth, curled her hand around her index finger. “Hey there, Maya. My little Maya,” she whispered. Sweat beads lined her forehead, and every bone in her body ached. She was on an entirely new level of exhausted, but none of that mattered in that moment.

Outside, the snow was falling. Kids had opened their presents and were testing out their new bikes and skateboards and games. People were inside their homes, singing songs of praise and cheer with their families.

And inside room 333, the magic of Christmas bloomed with the new addition to the family. 

**Author's Note:**

> ah, this was supposed to turn out so much better but I've had zero time to write and I really, really wanted to post it today so this is how it turned out  
> nonetheless, I hope you enjoyed!  
> the grown-up Gangsey is everything to me, especially if it means Gansey lived<3  
> Merry Christmas Eve (and Merry Christmas) to all of you!!  
> the holidays really are a stressful time, and for some, it probably isn't the happiest. I know that it's not the happiest for me. but in a few days, it'll all be over, and there's hope that one day, you'll be able to look around and think "Wow. Look where I am now."


End file.
